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Over a million people in Yorkshire and the Humber in housing poverty: call for government to take action

1.2 million people in Yorkshire and the Humber – 23% of the population, and 29% of children – are pushed into poverty after paying their housing costs, according to new research from the Northern Housing Consortium.

The situation is made worse by higher-than-average numbers of people in the lowest income bracket living in the private rented sector (PRS). In the Yorkshire and the Humber 23% of people in the lowest income bracket live in the PRS, compared to an average of 18% in England.

Those living in private rented homes pay more per week than people living in other tenures and are more likely to live in a worse quality home. In Yorkshire and the Humber 25 per cent of PRS homes do not meet decent homes standards and 20 per cent have a Category One Hazard – a problem which is deemed a serious and immediate risk to the occupier’s health and safety.
 
The recent decision by the government to refreeze Local Housing Allowance will see a further increase in poverty faced by those on lowest incomes in the PRS, as their housing benefits will not keep pace with rising rents.

To make sure everyone in the North has access to a good quality affordable home the report calls on the Government to:
• Announce a new long-term Affordable Homes Programme, with social housing as the
main tenure.
• Unlock up to 320,000 homes in the North through a ten-year £4.2bn programme to
remediate all the North’s brownfield land
• Inject funds and regulate to rapidly improve the quality of all rented homes in the North.

Chief Executive of the Northern Housing Consortium Tracy Harrison said:

“Yorkshire and the Humber is being hit hard with housing poverty and high levels of low-quality homes. There is a lack of social housing and as a result, household budgets are squeezed and people are often forced to live in poor quality, insecure housing in the private rented sector.

“The impact on the mental and physical health of those affected cannot be underestimated. This situation is the result of successive governments’ housing policies and now we are calling on the Government to work together with the housing sector to put things right.

“We’ve been pleased to see the new government is prioritising housing, but more needs to be done. It is vital that action is taken to make sure that everyone in the North has access to a good quality, safe home. This means building more social housing, injecting funding, and regulating to improve the quality of all rented homes.

“The recent decision to freeze Local Housing Allowance must also be reversed to avoid pushing more people on low incomes in privately rented homes into poverty and making things worse for those who are already struggling.”

The findings come from Housing Poverty in the North – an old challenge with a new look, a keynote chapter from Northern Housing Monitor. The full report will be released early next year.

The Northern Housing Monitor is the Northern Housing Consortium’s annual state of the region report produced by Arc4 and supported by believe housing, Bernicia Homes and Yorkshire Housing.

Housing Poverty in the North – an old challenge with a new look is available to read at https://www.northern-consortium.org.uk/northern-housing-monitor/
 

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Nina Walton .